Racist property deeds kept thousands of Philly homes off-limits to all but white buyers, study finds

[Counter Racist Male]

Racist property deeds kept thousands of Philly homes off-limits to all but white buyers, study finds

By 1930, the black population of Philadelphia had reached 219,000, according to the Pew Center for Art and Heritage’s Great Migration Project, triple what it was 20 years earlier. A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has found that between 1920 and 1932, the deeds for thousands of Philadelphia homes included racially restrictive covenants, language barring minorities from buying into a neighborhood or even living in it.

“I think very few people realize this kind of thing was happening, especially in the city of Philadelphia,” said Larry Santucci, a senior research fellow at the Consumer Finance Institute of the bank.


Home ownership is tied to wealth in the United States, academics said, and neighborhoods with race restrictions went on to have better access to services, parks, highways, and other amenities that contributed to home values for decades.

“What the covenants did was, provided an initial starting point upon which things started to build up on,” Sood said.

In Tacony, the legacy of racism continues, said Alex Balloon, executive director of the Tacony Community Development Corp.

“There are absolutely still challenges around lending to people who are home buyers or business owners in communities of color,” he said.

Tacony, though, is almost unrecognizable from the racially divided community it was a century ago. Barnes called it a melting pot, and said its diversity is now not just black or white, but includes immigrants from African and Eastern European nations. From 1990 to 2010, Balloon said, Northeast Philadelphia shifted from being 90% white to 50% to 60% white.

“We have more people of color buying homes in Tacony than we ever had,” he said. “We have new residents who are white who are purchasing in African American areas.”

The pervasiveness of racially restrictive covenants, and how they shaped modern Philadelphia and its economic inequality, bears more study, Santucci said. The data he has gathered so far, though, give a hint of early-20th-century Philadelphia, and the kind of city that greeted migrating Southern blacks.

“In a very real sense, Northern cities work much the same way” as the South, Cebul said. “There may not have been a completely formal law on the books about race mixing, but functionally it worked out largely in the same way.”

 

[Counter Racist Male]

“In a very real sense, Northern cities work much the same way” as the South, Cebul said. “There may not have been a completely formal law on the books about race mixing, but functionally it worked out largely in the same way.”

 

[ORDER_66]

NO shyt.... did they think that Levittown was an isolated place or idea???

 

[Captain Crunch]

I was trying to find it earlier, but anyone have the racial demographics of Philly pre-1970?

 

[TL15]

Incredibly blatant too

from the article:


‘Restricted section’ becomes a selling point
Santucci’s research team conducted the first comprehensive search for Philadelphia deeds with racially restrictive language, and found nearly 4,000 written from 1920 to 1932. Their language was far from subtle. The deeds “forbade the premises from being occupied or owned by persons not of Caucasian descent,” Santucci’s report stated.

 

[Counter Racist Male]

I was trying to find it earlier, but anyone have the racial demographics of Philly pre-1970?

20-25% Black.

 

[Blessed Koala]

Like no shyt. Its almost like "keep the nikkas in SW and North, we'll take care of the rest". The city of Philly as a whole is one big mess of racism that is only hidden due to the fact that everything outside of Philly and Harrisburg makes Mississippi look like Wakanda

 

[little4209]

Of course, white people hate/hated us for no reason...it’s amazing how every aspect of our lives has been ran by hate and we still came up out of it #blackexcellence

And my maternal great grandmother moved here (to Philly) around the 30s....from The Carolinas, I think

 

[Captain Crunch]

20-25% Black.

Was it at least 70% white back then?

 

[Geek Nasty]

It’s called redlining. There was really good coverage on how blacks in the rust belt were getting fukked over. White People still play games with the system. I windo shop for houses a lot and I’ll occasionally see a house only show up on my filter when there’s a pending buyer already

‘Hey Biff do us a favor and don’t sell to blacks? I’m not racist or anything I just don’t want to hurt everyone’s property values “

 

[TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?]

Aye @philmonroe come for these racist fukks in your city

U greasy, hideous oompa loompa

 

[Counter Racist Male]

Was it at least 70% white back then?

I Suppose. Irish, Italians, German.

 

[Remote]

This is a major reason why the white power structure exists in America. Most wealth stems from what you own.

 

[BadBoy]

nikka don’t wanna move there anyway shut I’m looking for places now and as might well just stay on the outsides of west philly

 

[Counter Racist Male]

Like no shyt. Its almost like "keep the nikkas in SW and North, we'll take care of the rest". The city of Philly as a whole is one big mess of racism that is only hidden due to the fact that everything outside of Philly and Harrisburg makes Mississippi look like Wakanda

To honest Philly isn't as segregated as it once was. You couldn't hardly go anywhere in Northeast Philly. Now blacks live out there. Years ago 1/3 Philadelphia was a no go for black folks.